Making personal technology user-friendly for you!

How Much Would It Take for You to Switch to Bing?

If you’re looking to be rewarded for doing something you were doing for free anyway, check out Bing Rewards. Bing wants to pay you for searching using its search engine instead of Google’s.

Like Viggle, that pays you for watching TV, and Mr. Rebates, that pays you to shop, Bing Rewards pays you to search on the Internet, something you were probably doing anyway. Bing, Microsoft’s answer to Google’s search engine, is willing to pay you to use Bing to search instead of Google.

You may recall that last fall Bing began the Bing It On challenge. Now they’re taking the challenge a bit further by rewarding people who use Bing.

How Bing Rewards Works

With Bing Rewards, you get rewarded for searching, for completing tasks and for referring others. You earn credits that you can redeem for rewards from Bing.

Types of Rewards

You can redeem your Bing Rewards credits for rewards for yourself or make a donation to a non-profit organization. You can earn rewards such as a free DVD at Redbox, Starbucks and Amazon gift cards, and Skype credit. Check out the rewards currently available at the Bing Rewards website.

Ways to Earn Rewards

Searching is the primary way to earn Bing rewards. You earn a credit for each search you do on Bing, up to 15 per day.

Each day you can visit your Bing Rewards dashboard to see what tasks you can complete for credits. Bing suggests a daily search for you to do based on the news of the day that will earn you a credit.

You can earn an extra credit by searching “Bing” on Bing!

You can earn credits for taking the Bing Rewards tour and by taking the Bing It On challenge.

You can also earn Bing Rewards by referring friends. You can share Bing Rewards on Facebook and Twitter, as well as send people a link to sign up through you. You can earn five credits per friend up to a total of 25 credits for referring five friends.

Signing Up for Bing Rewards

To sign up for Bing Rewards, go to the Bing Rewards website. You can sign up for Bing Rewards using your Facebook account or your Microsoft email account. Use one or the other because you can’t combine the credits.

What Else You Should Know

Don’t quit your day job just yet. Bing Rewards isn’t going to make you rich. In fact, they don’t even offer a grand prize, like the Royal Caribbean cruise that Viggle offers.

Shop carefully, not all rewards are created equal. The redemption amount of credits is heavily dependent on the reward you want to get. For example, 400 credits will buy you a $15 credit at Red Envelope or Pro Flowers, but isn’t enough to get you a $5 gift card from Amazon or Starbucks (those cost 525 credits).

Bing Rewards have been available for a while, but earning them used to be more complicated, requiring that you use Internet Explorer and install a Bing toolbar. Now you can earn Bing Rewards credits on Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer without the need for a toolbar.

Like Bing It On, Bing Rewards is only available in the US. I have no idea why Bing is showing no love for those outside the US, but they might try growing their search engine by reaching out to those who are outside the US of A.

Search results are important, so make sure that Bing is giving you the search results you value. That free Starbucks coffee won’t taste nearly as good if your search results suffered in order to earn it. Make sure that you take the Bing It On challenge first to ensure that Bing is giving you the results you desire.

If you’re a Microsoft Xbox gamer, you should definitely check out Bing Rewards to try to achieve Gold Status to get discounts on Microsoft Points and Xbox Gold membership.

Your Thoughts

Bottom Line

Check out Bing Rewards to get rewarded for your searches!

Have you been using Bing since the Bing It On challenge? Would you like to get paid for your Internet searches? Do you think Bing should expand Bing rewards outside the US? Is there anything that would get you to switch from Google to Bing? Did you know that Bing stands for Bing Is Not Google? Let us know in the Comments section below!

****************

Carolyn is Off the Grid, busy spending her Bing rewards! She will return on April 1 to respond to comments. Check back often because articles will continue to be published here at The Wonder of Tech during her absence.

“Don’t quit your day job just yet.” – lol That’s a very fair warning. Given that anything that gives us the opp to make money online is perceived as something that will make us super rich.

Anyway this is interesting. But if searching for “Bing” on Bing is gonna give people MORE rewards, many people are gonna do that. And will that not affect or skew the search database? How’s Bing going to balance that?

Hi Rashmi, Yes, it’s worth it to investigate Bing, even though the rewards aren’t available outside the US. I can understand their restrictions on rewards due to the challenges in obeying the rewards laws of different countries. But I can’t understand why Microsoft limited the Bing It On challenge to the US. If they want to increase their traffic, they should show some love to people outside US borders!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Fun Apps to Make You Look Fabulous or Hideous!

I’m not very keen on this type of scheme. I was introduced to Fanbox last year and thought it would be interesting to find out about it. I still don’t understand it. They kept sending me emails saying I had made money, but I didn’t do anything to earn it. Then emails asking me to verify my account with a VISA card or Paypal. Then alarm bells rang. It looks like a Ponzi scheme. At last count they were asking me for about $30 while I seem to have earned $199! Many of these schemes are a scam or require you to put in too much time for too little reward. It’s not in the UK, so I don;t have to even consider it!

I used a few pictures for my art blog this week. Struggling to get out and take new ones; too much snow!

Hi Mike, Yes, I don’t think Microsoft would have a Ponzi scheme going on, they want to offer a rewards program to encourage people to use their search services. It’s not easy to go up against Google! You don’t have to pay to get these rewards, just use Bing to search.

I hope the weather is warmer in England this week!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Grab Yourself a Gravatar!

Hi Carolyn
I think it sounds a bit desperate from Microsoft that they want to pay people to use their search engine. On the other hand it also tells us how much power Google has when it comes to online search. It is not that Bing is a bad search engine. We are just used to the way that Google works I guess. I think I will keep on using Google for my online search.Thomas recently published this awesome post..How to get started creating scripts with WMI Code Creator

Hi Thomas, Yes, Microsoft has its work cut out for itself taking on Google in the search realm. If you were working for Microsoft, how would you take on Google search and get people to switch to Bing? Breaking people’s Google addiction isn’t an easy task so desperate times perhaps call for desperate measures?Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Tech Yourself Back in Time with a Time Machine!

Carolyn,
That looks nice strategy. As you know, I also prefer to surf Google at most times and Bing I use not often. However the reward kind of approach would make enough sensation I believe. Let me surely try :)

I think this week looks Bing everywhere :)..I jusr read post on Lisa and about Bing as well :)

Hi Vijay, Yes, I mentioned in the article that I discovered Bing Rewards from Lisa’s article. I was very excited to share this information with Wonder of Tech readers who could benefit from Bing Rewards.

It may take a while for you to reap the rewards, but why not give it a go to see if you like using Bing and earn points at the same time? :-bdCarolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Fun Apps to Make You Look Fabulous or Hideous!

Ah…I’ve been hearing so much about Bing and the rewards but not really got down to having a real look, so this post is a real reminder for doing just that. I guess it’s become like a force of habit to always turn to Google now whenever we want to look up something that Bing doesn’t come to mind. I think it’s a matter of time when you start bringing about a change in the way you take things.

I was just thinking how cool it might be if their were search based social communities. But that might be scary too. What do you think?Stan Faryna recently published this awesome post..Winning Takes Care of Everything

Thanks for asking. I didn’t include it in the article because I only include my referral link when it benefits my readers. For example, using my Hulu Plus referral link gives readers an extra week free. Using my Dropbox link gives people extra storage space. But using my referral link for Bing Rewards only benefits me, not my readers.Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Fun Apps to Make You Look Fabulous or Hideous!

My needs aren’t that great, so I don’t know if I could discern the big difference between one search engine over another. Just as long as Google doesn’t do anything stupid like drop Google Reader, I’ll probably be ok with them…Bill Dorman recently published this awesome post..Amazing revolutionary diet and fitness program

I’ve been using Bing since you shared with us the Bing It On challenge last year. I wasn’t aware of the rewards, did I miss that post of Lisa’s? I guess I did darn it.

I’m already up over 10,000 points in Viggle. So it’s like I’m watching TV anyway, why not get something for my efforts! Same thing with Bing. I’m using them anyway, why not!

I’m so over Google and I’m going to start to find alternatives to all of their products because they are trying to take over the internet and I’m not going to be affected by them anymore. Yes I’m having a moment but trust me, it’s not ending any time soon.

Hi Adrienne, Yes, I found out about Bing Rewards from Lisa and I was very excited to share it with Wonder of Tech readers. I know that people like to get rewarded for things they’re doing anyway, as with Viggle and Mr. Rebates. I hope you reap many rewards from using Bing, Adrienne!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Fun Apps to Make You Look Fabulous or Hideous!

Hi Ruth, I know, right? Why wouldn’t Bing show some love to our Northern neighbors, Southern neighbors, European, Asian, Australian and African neighbors? That would be a great way to increase traffic to their site!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Tech Yourself Back in Time with a Time Machine!

I’ve been using them for awhile. pretty cool if you ask me and it is keeping me more on Bing and less on Google. Lol. The only “bad” thing is that 100 points will only get you about a $1 of Skype credit but then again it isn’t all that hard to get to 100 points. Can’t wait to get to gold level :)Brankica recently published this awesome post..Email Marketing – 21 Secret Lessons from My Personal Toolbox

Hi Brankica, That’s great that you’re using Bing Rewards. You’re right, it takes a while to earn rewards, but if you try to forget about the rewards and just rack them up, you may end up earning them without even thinking about them. A year from now you may have enough to earn a cool prize!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Fun Apps to Make You Look Fabulous or Hideous!

Hi Ron, Excellent point. It’s difficult to imagine that Bing will overtake Google, even with the Rewards program. But time will tell how much of a dent Bing will make in Google’s search market share.Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Fun Apps to Make You Look Fabulous or Hideous!

Hi Susan, You’re right, the rewards aren’t overly generous. But the rewards change and every so often they have sales on the points you need to redeem to earn a reward.

If you like using Bing, you can continue to use them and check back in a year to see how many points you have earned. I bet it will be more than you think!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Tech Yourself Back in Time with a Time Machine!

Hi Jawad, Yes, Bing does seem to be serious about taking on Google. Competition is very healthy, especially when we get rewarded!Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Your Top March Madness Apps!

Eh, the whole thing makes me feel dirty. Bing may very well be just as good as Google, if not better, (I haven’t really done any testing of my own to find out*). But trying to persuade me to use it by dangling a carrot out on a stick. That just sends me further in the other direction.

*About the only time I use a search engine other than Google is when I’m searching for something with a very odd wording or where I’m wanting results for an uncommon definition of a common word or something like that. Then it’s pretty much random luck when it comes to which one finds what I need.

Hi Kevin, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Well, no need to feel dirty. If you don’t like the idea of Bing Rewards, no need to sign up for it. You can use Bing without signing up for the Rewards program or stick with Google. Whatever makes you happy! :-)Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Fun Apps to Make You Look Fabulous or Hideous!

Even if I would join such a campaign I would never search important stuff on Bing. Don’t get me wrong, its one of the best search engines out there but I still think I’m better of with Google, I also use a lot of Google’s services so Bing is kinnda pointless to me.

But this reward system dose give me new marketing campaign for a couple of websites. So thanks for the info!Christian recently published this awesome post..Blog

Hi Christian, Yes, a lot of people think exactly as you do, “if it isn’t broken, then why fix it?” But perhaps this will be sufficient incentive for some people…Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Dress Your Email for Success with WiseStamp!

I never heard about this reward. I don’t think bing can increase its user base by this reward thing but its indeed a good try from Microsoft. All the best Bing! I don’t think I will be ever going away from Google search because still there are lots of thing I get in Google easily which I cannot find easily in Bing and yahoo!

Hi Atish, Yes, you’ve got to give Bing credit for trying to increase their market share. But if your search results aren’t as good on Bing as they are on Google, then these rewards probably aren’t enough of an incentive to make a change.Carolyn Nicander Mohr recently published this awesome post..Gmail Undo Send – Saving You from Your Mistakes